A sizeable crowd gathered at the Rockridge Library meeting room on September 20th to hear speakers address numerous Rockridge transportation issues. While there was no official representative of Oakland's Department of Transportation ("OakDOT") present, a variety of speakers, including RCPC's transportation committee chair, Alden Conner, provided information on topics ranging from the reconfiguration of the Rockridge BART's Ford Gobike bikeshare station to mini-roundabouts on Shafter Ave.

On April 19th, 2018, RCPC held its annual meeting and April Town Hall at the Rockridge Branch Library. A total of twenty-nine Rockridge residents signed in for the election, above the minimum quorum requirement of twenty-five. An additional eight Rockridge residents voted on Saturday at a polling place in front of the library. At the meeting, the five candidates for the Board of Directors: Ashley Cruz, M.C.

With opposition to their bill appearing both wide and strong, Senators Scott Wiener (D-S.F.) and Nancy Skinner (D-Oakland/Berkeley) backpedaled significantly on their bill to mandate upzoning near transit stations and along transit corridors. However, it was apparently not enough. SB 827's first committee hearing, before the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, happened April 17th. While the results of that hearing were not yet available on the Legislature's website, News

There wasn’t quite the full house that had greeted the January Town Hall, but the March Town Hall audience, coming to hear a follow-up report on the Rockridge BART Station Ford GoBike bikeshare station, as well as new enforcement plans for Rockridge’s many Residential Permit Parking areas, was still plentiful, and they got lots of information from the meeting.

The February Rockridge News featured an article on Senators Scott Wiener's (D-San Francisco) and Nancy Skinner's (D-Oakland-Berkeley) bill, which would mandate residential upzoning near transit stations and major transit line stops statewide. Faced with significant opposition to their bill, they have added a series of amendments. (The attached file shows the bill's amended language as of March 1, 2018.)

Following up on a commitment made at the January RCPC Town Hall meeting, representatives of BART, the City, and Motivate (the bikeshare provider) are beginning the process of re-evaluating possible sites for a bikeshare station for the Ford GoBike bikeshare program. The program is cosponsored by the City, Motivate, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and bikeshare stations are being located in many cities throughout the Bay Area. The Rockridge BART station location is a key location within Rockridge, with space for up to 35 bikes.

Following up on their success last year in passing SB 35 (see Land Use Committee Update article for January 2018), State Senators Scott Wiener (San Francisco) and Nancy Skinner (Oakland/Berkeley) have introduced a new bill, SB 827, intended to address California's housing crisis. The bill would create a "transit-rich housing bonus" that would apply to areas near transit stations or "high quality transit corridors" (bus service at least every 15 minutes during peak travel hours). In those areas, local zoning height limits would be replaced by height limits

The cty of Oakland is proposing improvements to bicycle and walking access to the Rockridge BART station. The Transportation Services Division will host a meeting Wednesday, September 30, 7:30-9 p.m. at the Rockridge Library to present preliminary project plans and to hear comments from Rockridge residents and business owners.

A study of CN-1 zoning (the zoning for the College Ave commercial area, as well as other thriving Oakland neighborhood commercial areas) will kick off next Wednesday evening, May 27th, with a meeting at the Rockridge Branch Library. RCPC's land use committee will be hosting the first meeting in conjunction with the monthly land use committee meeting.